Open Letter To Governor Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, by Nasir Hashim

I am delighted to write this letter in anticipation that as a governor of over 10 million peopleof Kaduna state, you will appreciate its contents and work on the lessons you may learn there in. A little do I expect you as a civilized democrat and an intellectual to be carried away by arrogance of power? And the worst thing is to allow yourself to be incited and deceived by the political sycophants who count on you for their daily bread. I understand that majority of people today earn their living by means of sycophancy, falsehood, deception, conspiracy etc. but ultimately only truth prevails.

It is a common knowledge that rule of law, fairness, freedom, equity, justice etc. are among the most precious qualities of democracy under which you came in as the executive governor of Kaduna state, and under which methinks you may aspire for presidential assignment in Aso Rock.

Justice, most especially, is what people are yearning for, and of course, it is what you always emphasise, especially, during your campaign rallies. Justice is what you promised the people of Southern Kaduna; it is what you promised the people of the central Kaduna and it is what you promised the people of Northern Kaduna. You promised justice to Christians, the Muslims in general and the Sunni and Shia Muslims in particular.

I don’t owe to tell you what justice is all about but I think it is not a crime if I remind you. Justice is said to be done if two persons with equal offences are punished equally. Justice is said to be done if the guilty is punished and the innocent is set free. Justice is said to be done if both the weak and the strong are knelt before the law. Justice wassaid to bedone if no singlesoul was lost as a result of attacking and damaging some cars in your convoy by some women in southern Kaduna. Justice would have been said to be done if no single soul was lost because of road blockage against the chief of army staff by some Shiites in Zaria. Treating two equal offenders unequally is a miscarriage of justice, and I am afraid that if this continues the word, justice may go into extinction in Nigeria.

Your Excellency, to the best of my knowledge, initially you had nothing against any individual or religious group, including Islamic movement in Nigeria (IMN). In fact, IMN was the first Shia group you knew. Assaqalain and Rasululazam Foundations occurred to you very recently – probably after Zaria incident. Many have the opinion that your recognition to the two Shia groups mentioned above came as a matter of defence after banning IMN in Kaduna State.

Your Excellency, I came to understand (in case you remember) that some members of IMN paid you a condolence visit when your first daughter, Yasmine died in her University in United Kingdom (2012). In your Aso Drive residence at Maitama Abuja, your wife warmly received them on your absence. Luckily enough for them before they went far you had returned home and ordered them to be called back. It was saidyou welcomed them in VIP manner and had some discussions with them. Among other things you said to them, “we are aware that Sheikh Zakzaky is fighting for the right of the poor Nigerians, and that is what we are also doing in CPC”. Finally, you told them to extend your greeting to Zakzaky and inform him that you would like to visit him in search of advice on how to remove PDP and Jonathan from power.

Now, members of IMN are left with their mouth widely open in an unimaginable surprise following your words and actions since Zaria crisis. Many of them busied themselves in trying to unravel the cause of your sudden U-turn. In fact, my major reason for writing this piece of letter is to share with you what they concluded as the cause of your unexpected change of attitude forwards them.

They seem to link everything to international conspiracy involving Saudi authorities and Islamic Development Bank(IDB). For example, as an economist you know better than me, anyway, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are some of the financial institutions used by the western powers to exploit the resources and dictate the social, economic and political affairs of the so-called third world countries by offering assistance under some conditions, which in most cases detrimental to these countries. These financial institutions, World Bank and IMF are among the instruments used in spreading western style of democracy across the globe.

In Middle East likewise, there exists such institutions (i.e. Islamic Development Bank). IDB consists of all OIC members as shareholders with Saudi Arabia as the biggest partner. Saudi Arabia has 26.57% of its total shares, the second and third being Libya (10.66%) and Iran (9.32%) respectively. This position enables Saudi to influence the decision of the bank. For instance, it was said that in1999 the bank approved $250,000 transfer issued by Saudi government as a contribution to “the purchase of land in Washington DC to be the headquarters for an education and research Centre under the aegis of the council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) .Whereas America and its friends in Europe use the World Bank and IMF to transplant democracy and fight communism/Socialism all over the world, Saudi Arabia and its friends in Middle Eastuse Islamic development bank to transplant their most cherished Islamic ideology, wahabbism and fight Shia/Sufism inAfrica and Asia. Just as you know democracy is the pillar that holds American hegemony. You should also know that wahabbism is the force that keeps the family of Sa’ud in the monarchy for at least 84 years now.

Sir, I am very serious about the issue of relationship involving IDB because i am conversant with its religio-political implications. Thus, let me refer you to some historical facts associated with the same IDB and the politics of Middle East.

The famous 19 century Muslim political activist, Islamic ideologist and revivalist, sayyid Jamal al Din Al-Afghani after his visits to several countries in the west and in the east, in 1874, he decided and moved to Egypt where he embarked on preaching his ideas of Islamic revivalism. Although his ideas were considered radical but many young Egyptian Muslims admired them. As a response to his call, in 1928 one of his admirers, Imam Hassan al-Banna founded Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt .Within a few years the brotherhood got an unbelievable popularity, especially among young people, and Hassan al-Banna became politically and religiously very influential across middle east. Banna supported King Abdul-Aziz to have a political entity, named Saudi Arabia created in 1932.That marked the genesis of a long period of rapprochement between Muslim brotherhood and the Saudi royal family. In compensation for its support towards the creation of the Kingdom, when Islamic Development Bank was established in 1975, Saudi Government made sure that Muslim Brotherhood was one of the major beneficiaries of the bank’s assistance. Again, a very significant number of its members wereemployed to work as the bank personnel with many of them receiving technical training in America. Surprisingly however, because global politics now is a game of interest, the same Saudi Arabia followed other gulf countries to designate Muslim brotherhood as terrorist group after a court in Egypt had declared it unlawful(a decision that the group survived three times in its history).

Then by something of co-incidence, on 22 Dec, 2016 during Radio interview, I heard you mention that Islamic Development Bank offered to assist Kaduna State in Zaria water project. No sooner did you mention Islamic Development Bank than I came to realize some elements of truth in what IMN believe to be an international conspiracy behind Zaria incident of 2015 and all that followed in 2016.The thought is that- for the role you played in demolishing IMN’s buildings and taking political decision to ban the group, Saudi has decided to pay you back with billions of naira to finance a project that can help you to score a political goal.

There are also among members of IMN who believe that apart from your deal with IDB, you are fighting IMN in order to impress President Buhari who appears to have an open hatred against them. Many say your dream is that Mr. Buhari may consider you the best of all governors and do to you the same as what Obasanjo did to late Umar Yar, adua. Perhaps that was why you repeatedly said “IMN did not recognise Buhari as their President.”

Still among members of IMN some say the cause of your change of attitude towards them has three folds; apart from the two above, you are trying to impress the Sunni majority so that in case you fail to make it to Abuja 2019, they cannot hesitate to give you their votes for the second time.

Members of other religious groups, however, may not share the Shiites’ perceptions. For example, many Christians regard you as a bigot and zealot. Among followers of Sufi orders (Dariqas), some see you as a new friend of Wahhabis. The Wahabbis on the other hand consider you a hero who champions the course of battle against Shia, particularly in Kaduna State.

On my own part, I think time is the best judge. Even though I have no doubt that everything will come to limelight sooner or later ,but I wish to ask you three (3) questions : (1)Sir, is it true that you have a clandestine agenda between you and Saudi government against IMN with IDB as your instrument? (2) Is true that you have neither a permanent friend nor a permanent enemy but a permanent interest? (3) Is it true that you said attackers in Southern Kaduna came from some African countries, including Senegal? In case you did, I think it was a slip of tongue considering your level of exposure. I believe you know, Senegal in farther than Saudi Arabia from Kaduna State. Thus, if it was possible for Fulanis to march from Senegal to Kaduna State in Nigeria then itwas possible for Saudi Fulanis to also do. I went round the cities and the villages of Senegal and Gambia; I never saw any Fulani man rearing cattle. In Senegal and the Gambia, a cattle rearing is an out-dated culture. And remember, Senegal has better grazing land than any part of Nigeria. So, i doubt as an intellectual you would possibly make such fantasy. I only heard that you said Niger Delta militants were behind it disguising Fulanis.

Finally, your Excellency, extend my greeting to President Buhari. Please, tell him I have three (3) Pieces of advice for him as follows:

A committee of enquiry should be set up to investigate the origin of Boko Haram, its sources of fund etc., since it has now been defeated.

Over the years, I have been observing a group of some young men all over northern Nigeria, wearing brown uniform with Saudi code of armas badge on their headdress (beret).This should be investigated in order to know their relationship with the Kingdom.Maybe their loyalty goes to it. Rather focusing on the activities of IMN’s Horras , DSS and police should also watch this group. If we cannot afford to lose dear Nigeria to Islamic Republic of Iran, we should not lose it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

For about four months, I have been hearing members of public bitterly complaining about human trafficking deals between some gulf countries and some Nigerian companies and private individuals including some Muslim leaders.This too should be investigated as a matter of urgency.

While commend your effort in making Kaduna State great again, I hope this letter will be replied as soon as possible.